So, chew on that for a while, and take some time to pray for Bible translators around the world. Again, only context tells whether or not it should be rendered "servant" or "child." Not only does it not mean "slave," sometimes it means "child." This word occurs in 24 verses in the NT. How in the world does the translator tell the difference? At this point I would say to my class, "1, 2, 3." And they would all holler, " Context!"īut to complicate matters, there is another Greek word translated "servant" but not meaning "slave." That is the word pais (παῖς). And there are other places where the doulos is clearly a servant, such as the doulos of the high priest whose ear Peter cut off (Matt. Now, there are passages where the doulos is clearly a slave, such as in the little book of Philemon. And, "The extent of the lord's or owner's control over the life, the family, the production, and potential freedom of the enslaved person varied greatly" (Servant, Slave," International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, rev., " Vol. And there were many, many slaves, some say a third of the population of the empire in the major cities. When is a doulos a servant, and when is he a slave? Now, the KJV unfailingly translates this word with "servant," but there was a complicated system of genuine slavery in the Roman Empire. The word occurs in 119 verses of the Textus Receptus Greek text. Typically, two glosses (basic meanings) are given for this word: servant, slave. This is a basic and important word, so the Greek 101 student gets it in a vocabulary assignment very early on in the typical textbook (Lesson 4 in the textbook I use, Learn to Read NT Greek, by David Alan Black).
It's a simple word on the surface: doulos (δοῦλος).
0 kommentar(er)
